TonyPulis'Cap

The big difference between this and the nWo infighting is that they're actually doing the right matches. The nWo angle never pays off with most of the obvious rivalry matches, like Nash v. Hogan. Extra points obviously for the matches delivering to varying degrees so far. Excellent point - as you say, apart from the convoluted 3 team War Games and then the nWo battle royal at Road Wild you never really seemed to get any actual matches between the two factions. While it would have been technically pretty dire, I think an actual heated Hogan/Nash match in 98 could've drawn a lot of interest, although we all know how that match ended up going when they finally did do it...

Not to make light of the discussions above, but just to touch on the actual ROH onscreen product, I thought that this weeks go home promo between Cody and Kenny Omega was pretty compelling, although Omega looking like he was trying not to laugh through some of his parts did take you out of the moment. I wouldn't say either of these two are my favourite guys in the business, and I know a lot of people find the Bullet Club shenanigans a turn off (although given the attendance we are getting at Supercard of Honor it clearly works for a lot of people) but I'm really intrigued to see their match and where they are going with this Bullet Club civil war angle. I know it has echoes of the nWo stuff in 98, but think the storyline has been much more compelling than that, with it seemingly based on personal emotion and motivations rather than what colour t-shirt you are wearing. I also really enjoyed the Mayu Iwitani vs Deonna Purazzo match in the WOH tournament. Deonna is really good, and I'm gutted she's been eliminated. I'd kind of fantasy booked in my mind her finally getting the win over Kelly Klein in the semis and then going over the established name in Tenille in the final to give her the big boost, so disappointed she's out as I thought it was the best story to go with in the tournament.

I thought this was the best part of the show really. For two people that were 'fired', I would've liked them to at least keep up the illusion a bit more by having security come out sooner but appreciate you actually need to have had the mics not shut off instantly for them to get the promo out. I liked the delivery - especially from Sami - and the words felt so much more authentic than for example listening to Bobby Roode on commentary for the Rusev/Jinder match.

Brexit isn't finalized yet, so yes. Not to get political...But given Brexit will lead to a lovely future of greater insularity for us in the UK from the rest of the world, having our own separate title which we can hold up as a symbol of our national identity (and erm newly won 'freedom') will be even more important... Davey Boy Smith did not become champion of all of Europe for this....

Really enjoyed this - easily MOTN and much better than the men's chamber match. I thought the dynamics between all the competitors were spot on, and everyone got to bring out their personality and characters through the match. While - apart from the moves off the top of the pods - there wasn't any crazy violence, I liked that the match was all about exploring the interpersonal relations between the competitors and their motivations rather than big spots. I liked Absolution working as a unit, and not doing the cliched turn on one another, and thought that Sonya looked the best I've seen her. I liked El-P's likening of Bayley to Arn, as she really held the match together. I still think we would all argue that she has not been used to her potential on the main roster but in so many women's matches she ends up being the glue. As others have argued above, I liked the slow burn of the match and that it built rather than going crazy at the beginning and then struggling to maintain that momentum. I thought Mickie looked fantastic in her run. While short, she had so much fire and intensity and again it was probably the best she's looked since her return. As ever Alexa's facials were so good, and her face in the pod when she knew she was 2 on 1 against Sasha and Bayley was perfect. I liked the spot of her trying to run away as well - proper old school with the sneaky heel finally being caught in a caged structure with some vengeful babyfaces. Loved Sasha's kicking Bayley down off the pod, continuing the great slow build dynamic between the two, and again it showed the character and motivations of the participants coming through rather than just doing a cool move to pop the crowd. Thought this was top stuff - ****

I didn't like this match anywhere near as much as you - i thought it was sloppy and awkward at times (the times when Titus was in) and then pretty flat and boring as well. I love Sheamus & Cesaro as a team, they were arguably my favourite act in WWE in 2017, but I didn't feel this had the great structure that their matches against the Hardys and Rollins/Ambrose had which would have enabled more heat to build. It wasn't terrible, and I liked Apollo's hot run in the finishing stretch, but while I know some round here rate him, I just flat out think Titus it terrible. I think their 2/3 falls rematch the next night on RAW was a better outing.

I enjoyed this, with Jax finally starting to show a more vicious side and use her size to her advantage. One of the criticisms I've had of her is that early on in her run she wasn't wrestling to her size, and was too tentative for someone being presented as a monster. I liked this, with Asuka being able to still show how good she is by using her technique to win the match and her striking to buy her openings. I wouldn't call this Nia's best match (I'd go about *** on it) as I liked the one with Bayley on the NXT Takeover, I think from London, a lot more. Speaking of that match though, and specifically the finish in that one, whether it's intentional or not, I like that ever since Nia has been competing - either in NXT or on the main roster her weakness has been being susceptible to a front chancery/guillotine choke type move, which Asuka had her down with in this match.

As with British Uprising I the previous year, it’s good to see the show main evented by the FWA Title and main evented by two British guys. Over the year since that show Doug Williams had been firmly established as the ace of the company having brought the title ‘home’ by beating Christopher Daniels at ROH’s Night of Champions in March. Following that he successfully defended the title against a series of imports including Chris Hamrick, Juventud Guerrera, Christopher Daniels and Bryan Danielson. This is his first home grown challenger. This is a really well built up match. Back at Crunch 2003 in March, Doug defeated James Tighe in a match that showed that Tighe could compete with Doug, but wasn’t yet on his level. For much of the summer and autumn Doug was competing in ROH and NOAH, cementing his position as the best wrestler in the UK and as a trailblazer of sorts for the UK scene, while Tighe was able to pick up big wins and defeat two former FWA champions; Jody Fleisch and Flash Barker in a mini tournament to become No. 1 contender. With his momentum growing Tighe was also able to beat another former FWA champion in Christopher Daniels and then finally pin Doug in a non title triple threat match, also involving Flash Barker, in Newport in Wales two months before this to show that he was now ready to challenge. A simple story – very Japanese in booking - and effective in building Tighe up; it really felt like the title could realistically change hands here. Stylistically, it’s a match up that also clicked - Tighe as a younger version of Williams, looking to take his crown. That plays into the match from the start and the opening mat exchanges; these are two technical guys, proficient in that style. A reminder as well, that FWA Title matches at this point were contested under 2 out of 3 falls rules. For most of the first fall, Doug, showing that he’s the top guy in the company is largely in control with Tighe trying to work an opening on the leg to make use of his Texas cloverleaf. Williams mainly controls the head and neck with a series of front chancery’s one of which he turns into a reverse DDT on the floor. Tighe, feeling like he is being dominated on the mat tries to up the pace with a pair of dropkicks and also an exchange of forearm’s, but this just seems to piss Doug off. After a series of reversals where each looks to hit one of their signature moves, he is able to catch Tighe in a cobra clutch which he flips over in a version of the move I don’t recall seeing before, but which looks really painful. This is enough to get a tap to go up 1 fall to 0. We have breaks between the falls with each having a corner man and taking on water, both playing up to the WOS heritage and the rounds system but also helping give it that big fight feel. With Tighe still feeling his neck, Doug goes straight in for the kill and tries to hook the same move again, before transitioning into a cattle mutilation! He’d had a series of great matches with Bryan Danielson in ROH that year so I like that he was working that in as a move he had picked up. Doug is looking to keep the advantage and keeps working over the neck but gets caught with a snap German when charging in with a knee. Tighe realising this is his chance uses that as an opening to hit a flurry of a springboard back elbow, a hurucanrana and a brainbuster for a nearfall when Doug just gets his foot on the bottom rope. He levels up the match at 1-1 after hitting two Tighetanics after Doug actually kicks out of the first one. I liked this and the foot on the rope as it showed the resilience that Doug has even in dropping the fall, and that Tighe will really have to raise his game to take the title. Almost off the restart, Tighe gets a great nearfall reversing the Chaos Theory into a roll up. With both men in a sudden death environment now, the third fall sees the intensity levels rise and the match breakdown into more of a brawl and it spills to the outside with Doug taking a nasty bump on the outside when going for his revolution DDT off the apron. They work their way to the ramp where in a brutal looking moment, Tighe takes a Chaos Theory on the ramp! Tighe is clearly now running on fumes but somehow stays in the match kicking out of not just a revolution DDT, but a series of a pair of brainbusters followed by the Chaos Theory! Getting frustrated, Doug deviates from his game plan and makes an error by going to the top but missing a senton. This gives Tighe the chance to hit a desperation tiger driver but just for 2! Given it’s got him a fall already, it makes sense that he goes for another Tighetanic, but having been hit by it before, Doug is able to counter this time and go all out with a Dragon Suplex Chaos Theory to retain the belt. This is a great match, the best of the FWA all year in 2003, and probably to this point the best I’ve seen in the company history. From the opening exchanges, to the escalation, to the ebb and flow and then the hot finishing sequence, there is lots to love in this one. (**** 1/4)

Before the match we see a really nicely put together video package on Jody Fleisch following his retirement the month or so before this. It’s a great video and once again, something the FWA was very strong at compared to other indie companies. For way of comparison, I’d argue that a lot of the companies’ production, particularly their videos was much better than ROH’s at the time. They were also way ahead of the curve when it came to developing their own entrance music for wrestlers – most of which were more than decent – so not having to worry about licensed music, particularly given that in 2004 they would get their first national TV deal. The package leads us nicely into this match, given that for most of the year the company had been building to a big grudge match between Jody and Jonny Storm. Unfortunately Fleisch’s untimely retirement was a huge blow to this show. Storm – coming in with a new shaved haircut and upgraded ring gear – looks much more the part now as the heel the FWA had been building him up as in 2003 and he makes sure to run down Jody in a pre match promo. While they weren’t able to have the big blow off they wanted the development of Storm as a heel was a real plus point for the year, although as I’ve started to document, he was already starting on a path to being more of a stooging heel when I think he could’ve been pushed up the card as a serious rival for Doug Williams. Credible’s ECW cache and being only a year or so removed from WWE means he gets a pretty good reaction and it’s a match which I was fairly looking forward to going in. He gets a lot of crap from being over pushed in ECW (which he was) but I’ve always thought he was a decent worker, who when matched with the right opponent could more than hold his own and have a good match. There’s stalling at the beginning with Jonny working his heel persona and he gets plenty of heat from the crowd, even if a lot of it has some lovely tinges of early 2000s homophobia to it. Credible takes things to the outside, and given his ECW background, it makes sense that he dominates early until posting himself with a low blow around the ring post. From there Storm’s control segment isn’t terribly inspiring although I appreciate him trying to work the crowd rather than just hit big moves. Unfortunately Justin Credible never really had any particularly exciting offence so his comeback isn’t anything to get to animated about. Credible gets a visible three count after landing the Tombstone, but that’s after accidentally super kicking the referee first. Storm gets a roll up with the tights for the win after Credible goes for a second tombstone. A fairly basic match but enjoyable in the way they worked the crowd. It’s still a huge shame we never got the big Jody/Jonny grudge match here as I feel it could’ve been much different to their more ‘exhibitiony’ contests they usually had. (** ½)

Every now and then Heat would still have a decent match or two in 2000/2001, especially during the Invasion period, when with the acquisition of the WCW guys there was a lot of talented workers where this was the only spot they could get on TV. As far as I recall it was the only time they faced off in WWE, but in the summer of 2001 RVD and Jerry Lynn had a pretty fun bout on Heat. The Triple H vs Hardcore Holly match from sometime in 2000 was decent too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4UtOsujdMQ This is both men’s UK debut, and is an ROH guest match, building on the working relationship that the two companies had built over the last year. It’s an interesting parallel as well to the year previously when Jonny Storm and Jody Fleisch had been taking their touring match to the US. I don’t think I need to go deep into the backgrounds of these two, but at this point in 2003 I believe both were aligned as part of the Second City Saints in ROH while Punk was still in the midst of his cross promotion spanning rivalry with Raven, that would also make an appearance in the FWA in 2004. Going into the match the commentators play up the two’s friendship as stablemates so the opening exchanges are based off respectful counter wrestling and one-upmanship. Colt has been pretty open about his respect and love for the British style of wrestling, and a couple of years after this would become a regular in the country to where he had honed that style completely. As you would expect with a Cabana match there are a number of instances of comedy, but what’s important is that they are always kept within the internal logic of wrestling and don’t detract from the match itself. It also happens that there are a couple of genuinely funny moments such as when Colt gets Punk to wind up for a shoulder block only to trip him. Punk is very much playing the straight man to Cabana’s humour early on and when the match is technical and being worked on the mat Colt’s greater mastery of that technique means he is largely in control. In response Punk’s approach is to try and hit more high impact moves, much of which such as the hammer lock close line and hammer lock DDT work on the head and neck. The match escalates when Punk tries a baseball slide to the outside only to get flung into the guardrail, followed up by Cabana hitting his always impressive springboard moonsault onto the outside. Unsurprisingly for two guys that were great friends and that had trained together they work really well with each other and you could already tell that through the smoothness in their transitions that they were a cut above quality wise than a number of the FWA guys on the card. Punk ends up winning a good match with his somewhat legendary Pepsi Plunge finisher (top rope pedigree) which probably for the best long term was sensibly retired. (*** ¼)

This is another match that the FWA had been building up pretty much all year, with the Duke of Danger – a stereotypical British aristocrat heel – having been ducking the challenge of Burchill. He is one half of Hampton Court, alongside his butler Simmons, who was massively over as the put upon loveable baby face. Burchill meanwhile is coming in as the unstoppable monster with the Goldberg push that has been destroying lower card wrestlers – often in similar handicap matches – since debuting. The Simmons dynamic makes all this rather odd though. Whereas usually you might expect the crowd to be fully invested in the sneaky heel that has been ducking a challenger to finally get his comeuppance, because of how over Simmons was, and how entertaining the Hampton Court act had become, there doesn’t seem to be that desire to see the Duke get killed in the ring. This match is the first time that Burchill is forced to sell and take any sort of damage, with the Duke and Simmons getting a fair bit of offence in for a sustained period. At one point you even think they could get a count out win when Burchill takes a really brutal looking fall through the ringside table. It’s a match very strange in execution, and because of this it doesn’t really work. While there are fun moments, and Burchill again getting to show off his vast range of impressive moves, he ends up selling too much while the crowd is also fairly behind Hampton Court. Both acts would have been better off in different situations and in different matches. (* ¾)

This was set to be Zebra Kid defending his All England Title against Flash Barker, a match originally scheduled for Hotwired the month before. That match never really got started due to the appearance of the recently fired Hade Vansen turning up to spoil the show and subsequently getting chucked out of the building. As you’ll see Vansen is very much the focus here. After Flash Barker’s entrance there is an announcement that Zebra Kid is not at the building and so the title can’t be defended. I’m not sure if this was a legitimate no show or storyline (Zebra Kid is back at the beginning of next year, although there is a five month gap in shows after British Uprising) but it means no match which the crowd is understandably unhappy about. However, the ‘fired’ Vansen is in the crowd and demands to be put in the match and for the All England Title to be on the line. In storyline terms the FWA commissioner Dino Scarlo had stood down so without him there the FWA officials at ringside agree to Vansen’s demands to ensure the fans get a title match. Not too much of this makes complete sense – why would they agree to these demands from someone they fired? And why does Vansen just happen to have his wrestling gear on under his clothes? (well, there is that maxim of always bring your gear) – but it all plays into the worked/shoot angle the company had been running with Vansen, and as we’ll see going into 2004 they had big plans and a big push for him in the works. The outside the ring/angle stuff is sadly much more interesting than what we eventually get within the match though. Flash has been a really consistent performer on the roster in 2003 but with the much less experienced Vansen having to lead large portions of the match there’s just nothing of any real substance or coherence to get invested in. Vansen was a guy with the look, and who had a lot of heel charisma but even when getting more experienced, struggled putting a match outside of the big spots together. He’s got some nice kicks – his background was in karate – but too often they involve incredibly convoluted ways in getting to them and what few transitions there are here are very awkward. The early stages are Vansen trying his best to avoid Flash, knowing he’s largely overmatched in a fair fight which leads to a chase on the outside and Barker putting his foot through one of the mesh guardrails attempting a super kick. Vansen follows this up by going after the injured leg with a chair before some pretty uninspired leg work on the inside. Flash makes a brief comeback but ends up crumpling after a leap frog and coming down on the injured leg. The finish is pretty surprising – both in that it’s clean and Flash submits – with Vansen winning with a knee bar. It’s a logical finish but the match before is non-descript. (* ½)

This is a match with a huge amount of backstory coming in and a huge amount of controversy coming out. It’s the final chapter in a violent rivalry that had been building since The Family defeated the team of Shane and Herman for the tag team titles at Crunch in March. Since then almost every FWA show had seen an escalation of the feud, as different combinations of The Family clashed with Shane, Herman and others such as Nikita and Stevie Knight, with the tag belts changing hands at different times but always ending up back with corrupted quasi-religious cult The Family. This match is titled, rather grandiosely, as an ‘Apocalypse Grudge Match’ but that basically means it’s just No DQ. It follows on from falls count anywhere, first blood, street fights and barbed wire baseball bat matches that these teams have had. Despite them being champions, The Family’s titles are not on the line after Shane & Herman lost their final shot at them at Hotwired the month before, in a match marred by an awful Dusty finish. The stipulations are that if The Family win then Shane and Herman must leave the FWA, while if they lose, their manager Greg Lambert has to take a Herman chair shot. As you’ll have seen in the title of the thread though, due to a storyline injury sustained the month before (in reality Shane wanted to focus on the booking and running of the show) he is being represented by Mikey Whipwreck. It’s an interesting dynamic – having your career being held in someone else’s hands – but never really plays into the match and feels odd given how prolonged and personal this feud has been. The match itself is pretty brutal, with parts varying between both of the uses of that word. Most of the matches in this feud were pretty clearly ECW inspired, and this features a selection of suitably random weapons including: cameras, video recorders, baking trays, baseball bats, barbed wire, drawing pins, golf clubs and a computer keyboard. As previously it’s Paul Travell who takes an insane amount of punishment (with the worst to come) including taking a press slam from Herman onto the pins (tacks) and then being stepped on to where they become firmly embedded in his head. Lovely. Which brings us to the big controversial moment of the match. With the violence having been escalated and escalated during the year, and this match already having had blood, drawing pins and every other type of weapon used - not to mention this being the big blow off to the feud and the big show of the year – fire is introduced as a way of trying to keep the bar raised. Greg Lambert’s book Holy Grail gives an excellent summary of what happened next, given he was ringside and just a few yards away. The Family light a ringside table on fire and go to powerbomb Herman through it. Due to the inexperience of the guys involved with creating the fire, not enough lighter fluid was initially used and by the time that Paul Travell ends up going through the table the fire has almost gone out. However, in trying to keep it going, and squirting extra fluid onto the table, the end result is the cap of the lighter fluid bottle catching alight. In an effort to try and salvage the spot Whipwreck - although it’s hard to know what he was really attempting to do - squirts the bottle at Travel unaware that it has now become effectively a homemade flame thrower and the result is suitably disastrous with Travel being set alight. On the video it’s hard to see exactly what happens next as the camera pulls out and you see Whipwreck diving on top of him to help put out the flames. Thankfully it’s an incident that I don’t think caused long term damage, but it’s an understandably horrifying moment that resulted in the FWA being banned from the York Hall by the building’s management. The company would never run there again. All this means that the finish, just a moment later when Herman suplexes Raj Ghosh into the tacks, is hugely anti-climatic, with most fans, and people at ringside focussing rightly on the aftermath of the fire spot gone wrong. As an ending to a rivalry built over the year and at the end of which the faces finally get a decisive win, it’s completely overshadowed. As a match it’s also hard to judge. You could argue the standard of the matches peaked in the summer and that the constant screw job finishes had stretched things on too long while also diminishing fan interest. The guys in the match do put everything into it, taking some brutal punishment and there’s a whole boatload of weapon shots – the match rating is as much for the guys efforts. Unfortunately the ECW inspired plunder brawl was already looking tired even back then. (** ½) As per the stipulation, Alex Shane comes to ringside to stop Greg Lambert from leaving and him and Ulf proceed to tape him to the ring ropes for the big revenge chair shot until…Shane stabs his partner in the back and turns heel to a huge chorus of boos. Shane’s ascent to be the top heel in the company was to be the predominant story in 2004, and in truth, probably needed, given the void of a heel at the top of the card.

Due to the relative lack of women’s wrestling options on the British scene at the beginning of the 2000s, Nikita continues to be booked in intergender contests. Because of this it’s almost to the point that she is playing a standard underdog baby face in her matches, rather than a female wrestling a man. A recent storyline had just been started whereby a £10,000 bounty had been put on her head. Given her popularity it was important to get Nikita on the card for the biggest show of the year, with Mark Sloan being the first person to try and earn the bounty. Another little note is that recent FWA arrival – loud mouth Northern wrestler Stevie Knight acts as misogynist ring announcer running Nikita down, although he makes it clear, he isn’t the person who has put the bounty on. The match plays very similarly to a lot of Nikita’s other singles contests in the FWA, with her getting an initial shine through some fast paced arm drags, head scissors and reversals before it settles into her being worked over to build sympathy with the crowd. It’s a formula that works well, and was effective for most of the year when she was a big part of the Showswearers/Family feud, however this match suffers from the common knock that I, and many others had against Sloan’s rather robotic in-ring style. He was not a bad wrestler per se – technically competent, and as in this match, he throws in a few cool looking moves - but nothing seemed to have any emotion, just moving between sequences as if he was a video game wrestler. Compared to Nikita’s match with Paul Travell at Uprising I the previous year, structure wise they are very similar, but in that match Travell was more vicious and brought character and personality. This feels rather soulless, and doesn’t have that sense of urgency to get over that a bounty is involved. As that storyline is just beginning, and being the more pushed and over person, Nikita picks up the win and we’ll see how her storyline progresses in 2004. (**)

https://vimeo.com/19142823 British Uprising was designed to be the FWA’s signature show each year. Coming off the success of Uprising I and a good year for the company, the pressure was on for Uprising II to live up to expectation. It was a show which the company poured a lot into, but while no means a bad show – I think there’s a lot to like, especially viewed many years after the fact – for whatever reason it just didn’t land as was hoped for. As with the previous year, the FWA ran the York Hall – a great venue for wrestling – and there is a good crowd on hand. The production; from the entrance way, the video screens, onscreen graphics, ramp and use of pyro shows the time and effort put into trying to make the show feel big time, and it’s one of the reasons I always enjoyed the FWA; they were a company – for better or worse – taking those risks to try and build the UK scene. It’s clearly not WWE level production, but when compared to what indie companies on the US scene were doing at the time for example, it deserved credit. A word as well for the great Uprising opening video, introduced following a clearly ECW inspired in ring introduction from the often much maligned (they were pretty bad) but infectiously enthusiastic FWA commentary team of Tony Giles and Nick London. Finally, before getting onto the opener, this show is rather infamous for being heavily delayed because of a bomb scare, causing the building to have to be swept by the police for explosive devices. Thankfully a hoax call, but it was perhaps a sign that despite no lack of effort and goodwill, fate really was conspiring against the FWA and Uprising II that day. The opener is the culmination of a storyline that had been running for most of the year, whereby home grown up and comer Jack Xavier was being matched against a series of imports being brought over for FWA shows to prove himself. After matches against Juventud Guerrera, Chris Hamrick, Mikey Whipwreck and EZ Money comes arguably his biggest task – taking on Homicide. This match is at its best when Homicide is on top, and at times he really lays a beating on Xavier with plenty of chops and kicks and some nasty looking face washes and drop kicks in the corner, one of which looks to legitimately injure Jack’s nose. I enjoyed Homicide immediately putting on an STF at that stage and wrenching back on the now bloody nose – work that cut! Jack was able to generate sympathy from the crowd through his selling and Homicide was always a wrestler that worked well on top as a Japanese strong style/New Jack lite hybrid. Jack is able to get in some brief flurries using his pretty unique move set but nothing to where he’s able to inflict any sustained damage. Showing how much punishment he’s dished out, Homicide almost wins by count out following his trade mark tope con hilo to the outside. It’s something of an upset, both in terms of the profile of each guy and the context of the match, when Xavier ends up winning what is a fun contest. On the one hand it was good – it’s to the detriment of your own guys when the better known imports would always get put over – and it fits with the storyline of Xavier having now proved himself, but due to the nature of people’s perceptions you sense some resentment from the crowd at him going over. It’s tough, sometimes you can get over more in a hard fought loss rather than fans feel you are being over pushed. As I say though, that is only a slight sense that you get, and this is a good match that helped cement Xavier as a key player going into 2004. (***)

Enjoying this rather random discussion of former FWA ahem... 'legend', the South City Thrilla Hade Vansen. Going back to the FWA, and the UK scene in the early 2000s, Vansen was fairly highly thought of, given he had the look and had charisma but he was never the best of workers. I think he had a karate background which meant a lot of his arsenal was rather convoluted looking kicks, but he always struggled to put together a compelling match outside of his spots. I do think towards the end of the FWA's run when he became the champion with a heel Katie Lea Burchill by his side he was starting to get it so it's a shame he never really did anything in wrestling again once he left the WWE, I think he became an actor. Nice to think about him again though, mainly so I can enjoy getting his gloriously terrible FWA in house theme in my head today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7fPJI6jRO0

I would love this if, for WWF feuds that had matches from MSG or the Spectrum or other house shows that were taped, if they included the local promos for those specific matches that only aired on the syndicated programming in the NY or Philly or whatever area. One of my favorite things to watch growing up was the promos for the local house shows on Superstars or whatever, and I always feel like that is missing from the Network and from the DVDs they have put out. It's not to that level of detail, but it's sort of an approach they tried with the first HBK and Flair DVD sets, which were some of the first career ones they put out. Rather than what would become the standard of having a disc as a documentary and then another disc(s) as matches, they had a series of matches and then for each would include five or six angles/interviews/build up packages/TV promos/spots that lead up to the match so that you had some of the context. I thought it worked well.

Colt and Ian Riccaboni are my favourite announce team out there at the moment.

A bit like - although maybe not to the extent they seem to be going with Jarrett - that it was the character Razor Ramon that went into the HOF rather than 'Scott Hall'.

Do we know for definite if this is the end of all brand split PPVs? Or just that show in May? I know previously when they have done a draft then a show can become dual brand because of the fall out and ending some story lines but will be interesting to see. Personally - and I acknowledge that this is with Smackdown falling off a cliff these last few months - I like the brand split, as it allows more people to feature than would otherwise be the case. To me, the least interesting Smackdown has ever been was during the years when they combined the brands between 2011-2016 as nothing of consequence ever happened on it.

If ever a match screamed an audible for a change of result mid match then this it. I've got no doubt that Trips and Goldberg didn't get on backstage, and that HHH would've been of the school of thought that Goldberg needed to 'learn how to work', but it's odd given that he does then lose the belt to him the next month at Unforgiven. I think I've heard that HHH was the kind of guy who believed that a title change should be in a 1 on 1 match, but compared to this when the crowd would've gone crazy if Goldberg had won, they are pretty mild for it the next month. It plays into something that I think has been a real issue with the wrestling business, both historically and to this day - no-one knows when to pull the trigger. The end of this match would have been justified with "look how much extra heat it will build and how much of an extra pop Goldberg will get when he finally wins" the issue being - both in this case and many, many, many others - that after so many cheap endings and screwjobs, fans just lose interest.

I’ve talked over the previous shows I’ve reviewed about the rivalry between The Family and Shane/Herman, and the increased violence in the feud being something that the UK scene had not been used to. As you will see from the stipulation for this match, clear inspiration is being drawn from ECW. I enjoyed the two teams last match at Vendetta – a tag team first blood match – which had the right kind of BS finish that builds heat on top of being a fun match, but this in contrast is a real mess and comes with an ending that even Dusty Rhodes would balk at in terms of screwing over the fans and trying to be too clever. This is Shane and Herman’s last shot at the belts while The Family are champions, with the violence escalating to where we have two barbed wire baseball bats hanging from the entrance way. The fact there is a somewhat convoluted rule whereby a fall needs to happen before the bats come into play, and then another fall after that to decide the match is a bad sign of things to come. As previously, The Family mix and match their numbers to defend the belts. In all of these matches Paul Travell has been a constant, given his propensity from show to show to take more and more punishment, but this time he is joined by Raj Ghosh, the newest member, who had cost Shane and Herman the first blood match the previous month. Unfortunately while it makes sense from a storyline perspective, Ghosh is really out of his element in a match with weapons. Greg Lambert, the Family’s manager, in his book looking back at this event talks about how Ghosh never seemed to want to be part of the group and didn’t want to be taking part in hardcore brawls, and you can definitely tell. He looks really off his game and you can see several spots where Travell is constantly trying to get him more involved. The first fall is a standard tag team match and tells the familiar story of The Family/Showswearers matches of the smaller heels being outmatched by their bigger opponents in a fair fight but cheating to get the advantage. Sadly the action is pretty sloppy throughout and it’s clear everyone is just killing time until the barbed wire bats come into play, which they do when following Shane accidently taking out the ref when temporarily blinded, a replacement ref runs in to give Shane the first pinfall. This is important and comes into play at the conclusion of the match. The increased violence with the barbed wire bats means that we get some welcome intensity and there are some nasty looking shots with them. In particular, Travell is busted open to where you can see the blood from his head dripping onto the wooden floor. The brawling on the outside between Shane and Travell is more inspired as the two have good chemistry, but once again the Herman section in the ring is him doing his New Jack rip off routine to diminishing returns. The finish of the match is a real killer, not helped by following the screwy finish in the Storm/Harmrick match directly before it. Sadly it’s the sort of booking that would start to have an impact long term on fans investment in the FWA. In their last shot at the titles, and after all the instances of The Family playing the numbers game, Shane and Herman seemingly win the titles to a good pop when Shane hits his 1 Night Stand finisher on Travell off the top rope into drawing pins…until, that is amid a fair bit of confusion, FWA head ref Steve Lynskey reverses the decision due to him being the assigned ref to the contest and Shane taking him out during the first fall which wasn’t No DQ - thus the titles go back to The Family. If wrestling was a real sport, I’m not sure this decision or interpretation of the rules by the official would stand up to much scrutiny… It all leads to Shane making one last challenge to The Family for British Uprising now they can no longer challenge for the tag titles – if he and Herman lose then he is gone from the FWA forever, but if they win then The Family’s manager Greg Lambert has to take a Herman chair shot. I’ve long felt that wrestling, from seemingly the dawn of time up to the current day is obsessed with building the heat to make a payoff even bigger, but so many times the hoped for cathartic ending comes too late after fans have become fed up with being pissed off. This was one of those occasions. There is a big storyline coming with Shane and a major change in direction, but this was a big mess and not a particularly good match to boot. (* ½)

There is a ton of backstory going into and around this match, so settle in… For the match itself, former ECW alum Chris Hamrick had been working regularly for the FWA during the summer and had won the All England Title from the Zebra Kid. He’d then put that up in a title vs title match against Storm’s (coveted) XPW European Title. Jonny was the one who walked out with both belts, before subsequently losing the All England belt to the former champ the Zebra Kid. Coming into this match, Hamrick, as former regular in XPW before the company folded is trying to win the title so he can retire it, arguing, perhaps logically, that it’s stupid to be carrying round a title from a dead company…although remember, this is a title where an actual physical belt was never made… The wider and bigger backstory though was the completely out of the blue ‘retirement’ of Jody Fleisch, just at a time when the company had been building up to a big grudge match with him and Jonny Storm at British Uprising all year. Since he had turned on him earlier in the year the company had successfully put lots of heat on Jonny and into the feud. To this day, it’s still something of a mystery why Jody decided to take a year out of the business when he was arguably the biggest star in the company and had been booked semi regularly in ROH. It’s often sighted that it was due to family circumstances, some nagging injuries or just general burn out. Whatever the reason it was a huge blow to the company, both for the big match with Storm being planned but also in the sense that the FWA would struggle to identify that top babyface to replace him. Jody’s absence is built into the story of this match, with Jonny making the demand that if he agrees to the stip that the XPW European Title is retired if Hamrick wins, then if he wins Jody can no longer wrestle in the FWA. I don’t know if the company knew he was going to be gone for a year at this point, but it works to give some sort of storyline behind why he would no longer be competing. With all that out the way, onto the match itself, which is a hard one to gauge. In a vacuum I think it’s a lot of fun – the beginning portion with them both stooging massively is proper end of the pier, classic boo the heel/cheer the babyface stuff with them both trying to work the ref to where it’s legitimately very funny. The opening stages is a great example of how to do comedy in a wrestling match but without exposing it. During this opening Storm causes Hamrick to get a yellow card which plays into the finish. My problem is that they had spent the past several months trying to get Jonny over as a serious heel for the big grudge match with Jody Fleisch, only to turn him here into more of a stooging heel. Perhaps with the big grudge match no longer happening they thought that didn’t matter as much. From the comedic opening the match progresses as you might expect to a more indie work rate contest, and there are a number of fun exchanges even if the match at just under 20 mins is perhaps too long for what they are going for. There’s a good story throughout of Storm trying to wind up Hamrick into getting disqualified and that’s the end of the match. With the ref distracted, Storm gives Hamrick a pile driver which is banned under FWA rules. When Hamrick reverses an attempt at a headscissors into a sit down pile driver of his own he is duly given a second yellow, leading to a red card and a DQ. If the big match with Jody had still been on the table then you would’ve liked Jonny to go over stronger, but you could already see they were starting to go in the direction of Storm being more of a stooging heel than a serious one. (***)

I have to confess not knowing anything about either of these two guys, as this was pretty much their only appearances in the FWA and they are not workers who did anything on my radar. I’ve written previously about the FWA relying on a core set of guys, so this was part of an idea to try and showcase some new names by having a guest match slot on some cards. This is on behalf of Premier Promotions, who are a company that was running since the late 80s and which staged more traditional World of Sport style bouts and more family orientated shows. In other words a very different scene to the type of fan that the FWA was catering for. As such I was expecting this match to go down badly with the fanbase, but those in attendance get reasonably into it and do give the guys a chance. In particular Jace The Ace (love that name) gets a decent reaction with his high flying. As was the case for most Premier Promotions matches, this is 2/3 falls with six five minute rounds, and what made me actually quite excited going in, given I thought it would be a much more traditional British style of match which would’ve been a welcome change of pace to the other matches on the card. However, despite the stipulations and the company they work for, both guys wrestle this as a pretty standard 2000s indie bout, with the rounds and the falls not having any impact on the storyline of the match. Both guys look competent and they do well to get the match reasonably over in front of a crowd with no idea of who they are, but while their fundamentals were probably better than some of the other guys in the FWA at the time, they don’t have the style of guest match that makes people want to see more. For the record books Jace The Ace wins it by two falls to one. (** ½)